How a jewellery bill is calculated

What’s on the bill

A customer reads the last line of a jewellery bill first. If the total surprises them, the conversation at the counter goes better when every line above it is easy to follow and easy to check.

Most jewellery bills build up in the same order:

1. Gold value: the weight of gold times the day’s rate for that purity.
2. Wastage, often printed as VA (value addition).
3. Making charges.
4. Stones, if the piece has any.
5. Taxable value: the four lines above, added together.
6. GST at 3% of the taxable value.
7. Round off, and the amount to pay.

A hallmarked piece also carries a hallmarking charge, which BIS asks to be shown on the bill. It goes on its own line; the worked example below leaves it out for simplicity.

Some shops fold wastage into making and print one line called “VA and making”. The arithmetic underneath doesn’t change. This guide takes each line in turn, then works one example through to the last rupee.

Gold value

Gold value is the net weight of gold multiplied by the day’s rate for the purity of the piece. A 22K piece takes the 22K rate and an 18K piece takes the 18K rate. A hallmark shows purity in both carat and fineness, so 22K appears as 22K916: 916 parts of gold in a thousand. BIS also asks jewellers to display how carat relates to fineness in the shop, so a customer can match the stamp on the piece to the rate on your board.

The weight that matters is the net weight. Gross weight is what the scale shows for the whole piece, with its stones, beads, lac or thread. Net weight is the gold alone. For hallmarked jewellery, BIS asks that the bill show the net weight of the precious metal, along with its purity in carat and fineness. When the gold rate is applied to the net weight, the customer can see they aren’t paying a gold price for a stone.

Print the weight exactly as your scale shows it, for example to three decimal places of a gram (10.000 g), so the customer can match the bill to the scale.

Wastage (VA)

Wastage, also called value addition or VA, covers the gold lost while a piece is made: filings, cutting, soldering and polishing. It is usually shown as a percentage of the gold weight and charged at the same gold rate. So 8% wastage on 10 g of gold is 0.8 g, priced at the day’s rate.

There is no fixed figure for wastage. It varies from shop to shop and from design to design. A plain machine-made chain loses little gold in the making. A fine handmade necklace with many small parts loses more.

Print the percentage on the bill, not just the rupee amount. A customer who sees “VA 8%” knows exactly what they are paying for, and can compare like with like if they have been to another shop.

Making charges

Making charges pay for the work: the karigar’s labour, the design, the finishing, and the running of your shop. Shops charge them in one of two ways.

• As a percentage of the gold value. Making at 12% on a gold value of ₹70,000 is ₹8,400. The charge moves with the gold rate.
• As rupees per gram. Making at, say, ₹600 a gram on 10 g is ₹6,000, whatever the day’s rate.

Many shops use both. A per-gram charge suits plain, heavy pieces, where the work doesn’t grow with the gold rate. A percentage suits finer designs, where the work is a bigger share of the price. Whichever you use, print it as a rate (“Making 12%” or “Making ₹600/g”) so that the customer can check the sum.

Say on the bill what the percentage is taken on. In the example below, making is 12% of the gold value alone. Some shops take it on gold plus wastage, which gives a higher figure for the same percentage.

Stones

Stones are charged on their own line. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls, kundan and other stones are priced at their own rate (per carat, per piece or per set), not at the gold rate. Because the gold value uses net weight, the weight of the stones never counts as gold.

When a piece is set with stones, print the gross weight, the stone weight and the net gold weight, so that the subtraction is on paper. For costlier stones, give the carat weight and the rate for each type of stone. A customer who brings the piece back years later for exchange will want to know what was gold and what was not, and so will you.

GST at 3%

GST on articles of jewellery of precious metal (HSN heading 7113) is 3%. It is charged on the taxable value: gold, wastage, making and stones together. On a sale within your state, it is collected as 1.5% CGST and 1.5% SGST. On a sale to a customer in another state, it is 3% IGST. These are the rates in the GST rate notifications in force from 22 September 2025.

Making charges are not taxed at a separate rate. CBIC’s GST FAQ for the gems and jewellery sector answers this directly: when you sell jewellery to a customer, GST is payable at 3% of the total transaction value, whether the making charge is shown separately or not.

The GST your karigar charges you for job work is a separate matter between you and the karigar. It isn’t a line on the customer’s bill.

A worked example, and the round off

Take a 22K pendant with 10 g of gold and some small stones. The rate of ₹7,000 a gram is an example only, not today’s rate. Wastage is 8%, making is 12% of the gold value, and the stones come to ₹1,500.

Line	How it is worked out	Amount
Gold	10.000 g × ₹7,000/g	₹70,000.00
Wastage (VA) 8%	0.8 g × ₹7,000/g	₹5,600.00
Making 12%	12% of ₹70,000	₹8,400.00
Stones	Charged separately	₹1,500.00
Taxable value	Sum of the four lines	₹85,500.00
GST 3%	3% of ₹85,500	₹2,565.00
Total		₹88,065

Here the total comes out in whole rupees, so the round off is zero. Most bills are settled to the nearest rupee. When the paise don’t come out even, show the difference as its own round-off line, so that the bill still adds up. If GST had come to ₹2,565.40, the bill would show a round off of −₹0.40 and a total of ₹88,065.

The free estimate maker on this site works out these same lines with your shop’s name on the estimate, ready to send to a customer on WhatsApp. In 24Gold, an estimate at the counter starts from a tag scan and prints on a thermal printer.

Rules as published on 16 October 2026. Check your own case with your CA.